1. The Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to an ion gun for generating an ion stream into the atmosphere.
2. The Prior Art
It has long been established that there are certain beneficial effects to be achieved in the area of livestock husbandry in having the atmosphere surrounding the animals slightly ionized or negatively charged by electricity. This charging of the atmosphere produces a tranquilizing effect calming nervous animals, such as race horses, and improving the production of animals, such as chickens and dairy cattle.
The normal air borne particles carry both positive and negative charges. When the positive-negative balance is changed, the behavior of these particles also changes. Positively charged particles tend to bounce off each other, walls, floors, etc., and remain air borne while negatively charged particles tend to collect and settle out of the air. Thus if dust, smoke, and odor carrying particles can be negatively charged, they can be readily cleared from the air. This effect has been often verified, for example, see the article Biological Impact Of Small Air Ions by Albert Paul Drueger and Eddie James Reed appearing in the American Association for the Advancement of Science 24 September, 1976, Volume 193, pp. 1209-1213.
Similar beneficial effects can be achieved in human environments. In the book The Ion Effect (E. P. Dutton 1977) Fred Soyka explains that the air we breath contains large numbers of unstable molecules or ions. The balance of these ions can be upset by natural and man-made phenomena with a corresponding noticeable change in human behavior. Creation of a negative ion balance has noticeable beneficial effects.